A case for lead-glaze experimentation by late eighteenth-century Catawba using portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF)

ABSTRACT

Recent research has demonstrated that Catawba ceramic practices changed abruptly and dramatically after 1759 following a devastating smallpox epidemic and subsequent community relocation. Pottery from the historically documented Catawba town of Old Town and others indicate potters adopted new techniques and styles as they adjusted to new economic and social conditions, including copying European vessel forms, experimenting with new ceramic paste recipes, and utilizing new decorative motifs. The identification of four lead-glazed sherds on otherwise Catawba-looking pale-bodied paste raises the possibility that Catawba potters may have also experimented with lead glazing. This paper presents the results of an elemental analysis of nearly 70 ceramic samples using pXRF and multivariate statistical techniques to identify patterns of production within pale-bodied colonowares. The results indicate that the glazed pottery fragments were made with elementally similar clay used by Catawbas in the Twelvemile Creek locality. I argue that in addition to modifying nearly every aspect of their ceramic repertoire, at least one Catawba potter experimented with lead glazing, providing further insights into the emergent Catawba pottery trade.

KEYWORDS:

• Catawba Nation
• colonoware
• lead glaze
• pXRF
• pottery
• experimentation

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Research Laboratories of Archaeology, the Department of Anthropology at UNC Chapel Hill, Center for the Study of the American South, and the UNC Graduate School. I would like to thank Vin Steponaitis, Steve Davis, Brett Riggs, Margie Scarry, Anna Agbe-Davies, Sohrab Habibi, Mary Beth Fitts, and especially Lindsay Bloch. Thanks also to the staff of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology for their hospitality and access to their collections. Thanks to Carolyn Dillian and two anonymous reviewers for providing insightful comments that improved this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on the contributor

David Cranford completed his undergraduate degree at Appalachian State University and received his MA from the University of Oklahoma and his PhD from UNC-Chapel Hill. David’s dissertation research examines community organization and household variability within the Catawba Indian Nation of South Carolina during the late eighteenth century (ca. 1760–1800). He is currently an Assistant State Archaeologist for the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology.

Data availability statement

The collections used in this study are housed at Research Laboratories of Archaeology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology in Columbia, South Carolina.